Bad sex and fake fur: Russians trash
FROM awkward sex scenes to cheap-looking robes and a shot of Red Square in 1905 with the Lenin Mausoleum already in place, Russians have found plenty to criticise in Netflix’s new series The Last Czars.
“What’s wrong with Netflix’s The Last Czars? Spoiler: everything,” wrote news site Fontanka, based in the imperial capital Saint Peterburg.
The series, which launched this month, tells the story of Nicholas II’s ill-fated reign. In an unusual move, it alternates acted scenes with talking head explanations from British and US academics and popular historians.
The focus is on t he role of Gr igor y Rasput i n, t he holy ma n who conv i nced Tsa r Nicholas and his wife Alexandra t hat he could hea l t heir haemophi l iac son a nd hei r Alexei.
The series – aimed at v iewers wit hout specia l k nowledge of the period – was never li kely to please Russia ns, who often pick holes in Wester n dra matisat ions of t hei r histor y and literature.
A noticeable exception was HBO’s Chernobyl ser ies ea rl i er t h i s ye a r, wh ich wa s warmly received by Russians a nd pra ised for attent ion to detail.
In The Last Czars, journalists singled out for mockery a title with the date 1905 and a photo of Red Square with the mausoleum erected after Lenin’s 1924 death already in situ.
This sparked a host of internet memes w it h t he date imposed on pictures of modern Russia.
In another error, the Kremlin walls are shown as red but were actually whitewashed at the time.